Sifting through the OPSEU propoganda on privatized alcohol sales

By the end of the year some Ontario grocery stores will be able to sell six packs of beer in the province but not everybody is happy about it.

OPSEU and The (foreign owned) Beer Store have launched radio ads citing questionable statistics to try and scare people about the prospect of some privatization in alcohol sales.

The information seems suspect to me not the least because it's been decades since Ontarians in some rural communities have been able to buy beer in several agency stores located in low population areas. If you're not sure what to think, ask yourself why an Ontarian can go into a store in a rural community and buy a six pack or a bottle of rum or a bottle of wine but that same adult in a city, is deemed too irresponsible?

Even though it's not easy to get answers, I set out to try and get some and in the end, can only conclude this is all about protectionism through the use of fear-mongering.

Comments

I actually agree with OPSEU on the fact that Toronto and several other large urban centres are not responsible enough to handle alcohol sales. I will have no problem with agreeing to have those large centres to deal with beer stores and lcbo if they agree to let the rural areas to have agency stores. :D

Too much bureaucracy here in Ontario. I have moved to Ontario from Alberta a few years ago and am appalled by the puritanical, hierarchal, system here. It causes very high liquor prices and no level of competition. Too much self preservation of the current system. Occasionally I buy my stuff in Quebec or in NY state when I can.

Yep – you can pay some fkg unionized as*hole $50 per hour to punch a cash register, but you can’t pay this in the private sector.

And of course the unions collect their percentage based dues from these overpaid lumps. If it’s not about profits, why aren’t unions fixed fee? Because it is about profits – for unions.

And just like the fkg union as*holes that get paid their $60K per year to run a cash register at Tim Horton’s kiosks in union run hospitals – $60K per year to ask, “would you like a donut with that coffee?”.

This is nothing but a pathetic attempt by OPSEU to protect union jobs. $28/hr to work part time(sometimes less than 20 hours a week) to run a cash and stock shelves is ridiculous. It is an attempt to demonize the skill set of the average clerk who fulfills their duties for a reasonable wage. The other side of this same coin is, the union protects the misfits at the LCBO and The Beer Store who get caught selling to minors or intoxicated persons, while the owners of the agency stores face the possibility of losing their stores. Hypocrisy

Joan said, “Albertans drink three times more than the rest of us to try to forget they elected the NDP.”

Well we might, but can’t anymore as the job losses here are huge and some of the people that are keeping their jobs have to take a pay cut to keep them. And even though some of this is due to the low oil prices, it is exacerbated by the NDP.

In Alberta, you cannot buy alcohol in the grocery chains. That is an outright lie. Some of the grocery chains have liquor stores, such as SuperStore for example, but it is in a separate building where all that is in there is alcohol and no groceries. All the same laws apply like in an Ontario liquor store.

Alcohol should have been in corner stores and grocery stores decades ago. Like America. Like Montreal according to my wife who is from there. Seems like the kind of thing a supposed free country should allow.

These two outfits are essentially monopolies – unionism thrives in a monopoly – modern unionism aids a monopoly through promoting single desk marketing – seems pretty obvious to me that unions hate competition almost as much as they hate work.

In Alberta, now that we have a Nanny State government, my prediction is that we will be back to the union staffed ALCB stores. This despite the proven worth of the privatized stores; private stores will unlikely be the case in four years…make that 3 and 3/4’s but whose counting.

That is not true! In Alberta you can not buy beer at a Grocery Store! A Liquor depot must be in a separate free standing structure and is just like any other liquor store and all regulations apply to all of them. I also question the 3 times more likely to an impaired driver in Alberta … isn’t MADD a cow disease :-P
What would stop a 20 year old LCBO employee from selling the same beer to their 17 year old cousin? NOTHING!